By: Fredwill Hernandez
The [123nd] National Association of Music Merchants [NAMM] Show, which ran from Sun. – Jan 25 through Sun. – Jan. 28 — returned for the third time [in-person] without any COVID-19 restriction with “mixed emotions.” Many attendees were disappointed with the [show] size and turn out, while others like myself were just glad NAMM returned to its regular January dates— even if it was [back] with baby steps, in hopes future [NAMM] shows will eventually regain momentum and return to their glory days.
Absent from the show were companies like Gibson Brands, PRS, Fender, UA, Marshall, Presonus (Fender), KRK (Gibson), and countless others who according to NAMM [in 2021], “was a 50% drop” from the 7,000 brands that exhibited in 2020, during the last in-person show before the pandemic. A notable difference this year was “the size” of some previous show booths, “their location,” and even though the floor plan allowed [for] more space between booths – a pandemic precaution, it was obvious there was “much less foot traffic.” There were 115,000 attendees in 2020, and this year there were 62,000 attendees [15,289 more than last year], and 1,600 exhibitors [400 more also than last year] representing roughly 3,500 brands versus 7,000 brands that exhibited in 2020, the last year the show was held, pre-pandemic.
On the flip side, companies like Shure [Mic’s], Wolff Audio, Warm Audio, Lynx Studio Technology, Amphion Loudspeakers Ltd., Klawitter Design [KD], and a few others took advantage of the in-person show’s return in being able to personally interact with attendees and its customers.
For a third straight year there was a “buzz” surrounding Warm Audio’s booth. This year was based on their new and very impressive “blue” WA-1B tube optical compressor.
“The WA-1B is our newest compressor, it’s a tube optical compressor like our WA-2A but what’s different about it that’s awesome is that it has more external controls. It has external attack and release, with the WA-2A you have peak reduction and level, but with the WA-1B you can actually control the internal parts of the compressor, deal with threshold ratio. It’s really big with R&B, Hip Hop, and rap: Kendrick, Kanye, Drake, Jay Z that classic stuff,” eloquently explained Matt “Dez” Desilet, Product Marketing Manager, Warm Audio. “The WA-2MPX [which we unveiled at NAMM last year] is based on the Ampex 351 that was a tape machine [style] pre-amp that’s kind of first on the chain: plug your mic into that, then the compressor is next that’s controlling your volume chain. Say you’re a real dynamic singer and you were getting loud, getting quiet. What’s hard with recording, right – you want to make sure the volume is even so you can mix better later, but you don’t want to suck all the tone out. So, what the WA-1B does, it gives you all that sweet tone, so the tone stays in. You know plug-ins, I love plug-ins but when you do a lot of compression it takes the tone away, this [the WA-1B] keeps it there. I call it our goldilocks, it’s our middle compressor. So, if you have the WA76 our black one, or our WA-2A our gray one, this one is the best of both worlds. It’s really great on drums, bass, vocals, spoken word, and voice over, is really good for that too. It’s amazing on guitars too, especially acoustic or the mic from the cabinet.”
Another company who had “their presence felt” was Wolff Audio, based among other things their new and very impressive Propatch 128 all-relay automated PatchBay solution for Pro Audio.
“This is a 64 input, 64 output digital controlled analog patch bay. It uses an all relay system, it is completely passive in the audio path, [meaning] there’s nothing that touches your audio. It is controlled by a web app. It will [also] store all your presets. This one we’re looking at is the 64×64 is ten thousand dollars, we also have a 32×32 which is around the four thousand range,” explained renowned recording audio engineer Jim Mikles, who along with [partners] Jared Vogt, and Paul Wolff founded what is “highly praised and known” as Wolff Audio.
Another company also highly praised for among other things their AD/DA converters is Lynx Studio Technology who were unveiling their next-generation two-in, six out AD/DA Hilo 2 audio interface/converter.
“The Hilo 2, we didn’t want to start from scratch because the Hilo’s were so successful for us. We wanted to make improvements that matter. So, the things we focused on — we have new converter chips: a little better audio performance on the line in’s and out’s, a little bit less distortion, a little better dynamic range. We made the clocking we perfected in the Aurora in, we applied that to the Hilo 2, so it’s more accurate precise clock than even on the old, so those are sonic things that improve it,” eloquently pointed out Paul Erlandson, Director of Product Support, Lynx Studio Technology. “We also give access to different filters, so you want the behavior of the roll off to be a little different, to have the transients be a little sharper, there’s going to be like eight different settings you can try there: there’s different characters you can get out of it as well. We have also changed the screen. In the old screen it was based on pressure, the new one is based on capacitance, the electrical charge on your fingers, so it’s more responsive. It works more like your cell phone, it’s brighter, cleaner looking, so off axis feeling is a lot better as well. We didn’t want to mess with the formula since it was so successful, we wanted to do stuff that’s really going to help. It’s really our best performing conversion with smaller channel count. So – it’s not for everyone, if you need eight channels of analog channels the Hilo 2 is not your guy.”
Amphion Loudspeakers Ltd., was another booth that definitely caught my attention, who among other things were displaying a [box] cut out of “a very unique three-way active [studio] monitor.”
“Our Amphion One25A is a new active monitor, something we’ve been developing [working on] since 2019, so were four years on R&D. It’s fully sealed three-way active monitor, we have dual seal cabinets. We separated the bass unit from mid-range and tweeter. We are using a new tweeter and mid-range in the speaker. We also have separated the electronics outside the box which are in a heavily steel enclosure, it houses power supply and tri amps for bass, treble, and mid-range which is also removable for soffit-mounting applications,” eloquently explained Julian Hyvonen, Marketing Manager, Amphion Loudspekers Ltd. “The One25A monitors are a very much addition to the Amphion family instead of being its own individual product, so we still use the similar design principles as in the rest of the line — so we have a low cross-over point, wave guide design, [and] time align drivers. We also use a very simple and pure signal path, we don’t use any DSP, or any unnecessary AD/DA conversion that way we get the maximum resolution out of the product as well. We use the nice part of active design so it protects the circuits as well as eight filters, and we have applied boundary controls, eight step boundary controls so you can adjust the bass under 150Hz, from -70db to +7db and that works for soffit mounting and placing close to boundaries.”
NAMM [in my opinion] “needs to be commended” [along with the outgoing NAMM Pres./CEO Joe Lamond — for his 20 years of service], for not only deciding to bring the [in person] show back for a third straight year, which not only shows “their relentless commitment” to the companies that partake and the show itself, but equally important to the music enthusiasts and general public who attends. Many among myself highly anticipate NAMM returning to its glory days, having the show return to its original January dates this year, I feel “was a start.”